Chapter 811

Vasili Zaitsev waited for the four of us to see the captured sniper gun. After that, he took out a document from his coat pocket, handed it to me in both hands, and said respectfully, "Comrade division, this was found from the German sniper who was killed."

I took the sniper Certificate in Vassily's hand and opened it. There was a picture on it. It was a serious German officer, who should have been the sniper killed by Vassily. But I didn't know any of the words on the certificate. So I handed it to kirilov and asked, "Comrade commissar, do you know the words on it?"

Kirilov took the document I gave him, looked at it, and then said, "it seems that captain gramus guessed well. The German sniper who was killed by lieutenant Vassily is indeed major koningler, the headmaster of the German sniper school from Berlin." He closed his certificate, handed it to Bantai leiev, and then tentatively asked me, "Comrade division, should we report this matter to the commander immediately?"

After dialing the phone, trekov heard my voice and seemed a little impatient. Maybe he thought I called him to complain to him, hoping to postpone his deadline. I explained the situation quickly before he hung up. After listening, trikov exclaimed excitedly, "what, comrade oshanina, what did you say? You said Comrade Vasili Zaitsev killed the enemy's snipers? "

"Yes, comrade commander." I replied briefly, "the German sniper who killed many of our snipers and commanders has been killed by lieutenant Vassily."

On hearing my reply, trakov became more cautious. He tentatively asked, "are you sure that the sniper who was killed is the one who has been giving us a headache recently?"

As far as I know of trakov, I had long guessed that he would ask, so I immediately replied in a positive tone: "Comrade report commander, according to the documents found by lieutenant Vassily on the dead German sniper, he is major koningler, the principal of Berlin Sniper School."

Hearing my affirmative answer, trakov said with relief, "great, our snipers are great." Then he asked, "who else is on this mission besides lieutenant Vassily?"

"Report to commander," I said drily, according to the order, "in addition to lieutenant Vasili Zaitsev, there are two guard teams led by his deputy Anatoly Chekhov and Victor Medvedev, as well as corporal Mikhailov."

Trikov asked a little puzzled: "o'shanina, to destroy a German sniper, do you need to send so many commanders and fighters?"

I quickly explained to him: "Comrade commander, you don't know that the German sniper is very cunning and patient. He won't open fire easily until he sees any valuable target. So I took two classes from the guard camp, led by corporal Mikhailov, and some of the soldiers pretended to be commanders and a reinforcement team to attract the attention of German snipers. "

"So it is. I see." When trakov finished, he hung up decisively.

Trekov hung up so fast that I didn't have time to ask how to reward Vassily. After putting down the phone, I praised Vassili a few more words and sent him back to rest.

As soon as he left, I told basmanov to call in corporal Mikhailov, who was assisting Vasili in his mission. Mikhail lov had been waiting at the door. As soon as he heard his boss's greeting, he quickly entered the headquarters.

Standing in front of me in a second lieutenant's uniform and looking at the dust all over his body, I can imagine how difficult and dangerous the tasks he has been carrying out these days. After looking him up and down, I asked with concern, "Comrade corporal, have all the soldiers on the decoy mission come back?"

When Mikhailov heard my question, his face muscles twitched violently, and then he answered with difficulty: "report to Mr. commander, we have 21 people participating in the mission this time, including me. Now there are 14 people coming back."

"What about the other seven soldiers?" Before I could ask, kirilov next to me asked first.

Mikhailov heard kirilov's question, lowered his head to his chest, and answered bitterly: "the remaining seven soldiers were all killed by the sniper of the enemy."

Although Vassili made such an understatement when he reported to me the process of eliminating German snipers, I knew in my heart that the real situation at that time was far more dangerous than what he said, otherwise, the casualties of Mikhailov's team would not be as high as one third.

In the evening, trakov's adjutant, Captain krimov, and the heralds came to the division headquarters. I was quite surprised to see the two men appear in the division headquarters. I immediately asked Klimov, "Comrade captain, why are you here? Is there any important order from the commander?"

Klimov raised his hand to salute me and replied, "Comrade General, I and herald sidtorin have sent you medals on the order of the commander." After that, he took out a document from his briefcase and handed it to me. "This is the list of awards personally signed by the military commissar of the group army."

With a puzzled look on my face, I took over the list of awards that krimov had handed me and looked at it carefully. It read: "in order to honor the officers and men who made great contributions in the battle of defending Stalingrad, we hereby award the following medals of comradeship:

He was awarded the first class Patriotic War Medal of excellent sniper lieutenant Vasili Zaitsev;

Awarded sniper Anatoly Chekhov the second class Patriotic War Medal;

Awarded sniper Victor Medvedev the second class Patriotic War Medal;

The second class National Defense Medal was awarded to corporal Mikhailov;

The rest of the participants will be decorated with corresponding military medals. "

After reading the list, I handed it to kirilov, and then asked Klimov, "Comrade captain, where is the medal?"

"Sister Rita, I have it." After calling me sweetly, sidtorin took out a pile of medal boxes from his backpack and put them neatly on the table.

While sidtorin was looking out of the medal box, I first told basmanov, "major, go and call in all the officers and men on the medal list. Except for lieutenant Vassily who participated in the sniping mission, the three of them and the soldiers of the two classes led by Mikhailov."

After basmanov left, I told akhromeyev: "chief of staff, there has been no news from the enemy in the past two days. You call the heads of all regiments and say that a temporary meeting will be held tonight for commanders above the battalion level to attend."

Akhromeyev nodded, picked up the phone from the desk, and then asked me, "Comrade teacher, what's the topic of the meeting?"

"Comrade chief of staff, is that true?" Kirilov said: "what else can we do, of course, is to inform them to come to the Vassily's conferring conference."

It's a bit of a fuss to ask a group of battalion and regiment commanders to attend the ceremony of honoring ordinary soldiers. After kirilov finished, I said to akhromeyev with a smile, "chief of staff, you tell them that tonight you will introduce the current situation of enemy and ourselves and how to organize guerrilla warfare in cities."

Lieutenant Vassily, their ceremony was very simple. After announcing the list of awards from the headquarters, kirilov personally put on a brand-new medal for Vassily and 17 of them, and said a lot of words of encouragement, which moved many soldiers to tears. As for the seven soldiers who died, the medals they received were kept by kirilov for the time being. After the battle of Stalingrad, he sent them to their homes.

After the soldiers who won the medals left, the battalion and regiment commanders who received the notice began to come to the command post in groups. Basmanov, who was in charge of reception, saw the commanders coming in, so he arranged them to sit on the temporary bench.

When all the battalion and regiment level commanders arrived, I looked at the crowd sitting below and was shocked. I didn't expect that there were so many people, including the head, deputy head and political commissar of each regiment, and the battalion commander and deputy battalion commander of each battalion. There were more than 40 people. Most of the people present were not sure why I suddenly called them here, so they could not help whispering to each other, trying to figure out what was going on.

When kirilov saw that all the people were coming, he tilted his head to my side and asked in a low voice, "Comrade division, all the commanders of the meeting are here. Are you ready for the meeting?" Seeing that I nodded in agreement, he stood up slowly, took two steps forward, and coughed softly. With his cough, the original noisy headquarters suddenly quieted down, and all the commanders looked up at him, waiting for his next words.

"Comrades commanders," kirilov was still a little excited when he saw so many subordinates sitting in front of him, "there are several purposes to call you here today. 1、 Due to the fierce fighting, many command posts in the division have been replaced with new commanders. We can take this opportunity to get to know each other, which will greatly enhance the cooperation of all units in future battles; 2、 The chief of staff will introduce to you the current situation of the enemy and ourselves at mamayev post and 107.5 highland; Third, the division commander himself will tell you how our troops should carry out guerrilla warfare in cities. "

Kirilov didn't say much. After he finished speaking, he abdicated to the chief of staff, akhromeyev, to introduce to you the current situation of the enemy and ourselves at mamayev post and 107.5 highland.

After talking about the current situation for about five minutes, akhromeyev stopped, turned to me and said in a low voice, "Comrade teacher, I'm finished. Please go ahead."

I nodded, stood up, followed kirilov's example, took two steps forward, stood in front of the commanders, and then began to instill into them what I knew about urban warfare: "urban warfare is a special kind of warfare. This kind of battle not only depends on strength, but also on wisdom, skill, adaptability and surprise. The buildings in the city are like breakwaters, which cut off the enemy's battle formation in attack, so that the enemy can only advance along the streets. Because, we firmly adhere to some particularly solid buildings, and organize a small number of teams in these buildings. Even when surrounded, these teams can organize a ring defense. In particular, when we use solid buildings as fire support points, the small teams that stick to them can use these support points to exert the power of machine guns and submachine guns, kill countless aggressors and make it difficult for the enemy to move. In this regard, the 42nd regiment of the 13th division of the close guard did a good job. The detachment led by Sergeant Pavlov of the regiment occupied a building next to the square of January 9, where it caused great damage to the enemy attacking the city. At present, both regiment 1 and regiment 3 have built new fortifications. I hope that when these strongholds are attacked by the German army, they will also cause heavy damage to the enemy like Pavlov building.

When we carry out counter assault, due to the limitation of terrain, I do not advocate that we should use large troops or many units to attack. The first battle after the formation of our division was to capture a settlement occupied by the German army. At that time, we organized a number of strike teams. Although the number of them was small, they had strong attack power, were brave in fighting and were as flexible as snakes. The targets occupied by the Communist Party were immediately attacked by various assault teams, and the elements of the Communist Party were rarely able to withstand the attack of artillery, explosives, and then grenades, bayonets, and engineering shovels. The two sides competed fiercely for each building. In the building, they fight for every basement, every house and every corridor. On the contrary, the streets are empty and the square is empty.

Our soldiers and commanders should learn to be as close to the enemy's position as possible when preparing for the fire and artillery of the enemy's aviation forces, so as to protect themselves from casualties. German pilots and Gunners are afraid to hurt their own people and are not willing to take the risk to attack my battle formation. Therefore, we often use close combat tactics, at least into the grenade drop distance.

***The aggressors did not like close combat, or rather were unfamiliar with it. Their nerves couldn't bear it. They didn't have enough courage to look at the soldiers in red army uniform face to face. We can see the soldiers at the enemy's front posts from a distance, especially at night, because they always shoot a few shots with submachine guns every 5-10 minutes to embolden themselves. Our troops involved in the night attack can easily find them, then climb up to them and kill them with a bullet or a bayonet. "

Although a lot of what I said is platitude, I have to say that because there are too many commanders at all levels in the division, many of them are transferred from other units, and they are not familiar with some unique tactics and playing methods of the independent division. I can only use this opportunity to force my own ideas into them.

I went back to the table, picked up the teapot on the table, drank a few water, and then said, "night is our world, and night fighting is my independent division's specialty*** The aggressors were not good at night fighting, but we learned to act on the enemy at night in accordance with the law of tit for tat. During the day, the plane of * * swaggered over our battle formation, which made us unable to look up. But at night, we are not afraid of them. During the day, we are more defensive, trying to repel every attack of the enemy.

Without the cover of planes and tanks, the enemy seldom attacks us. At this time, it is our turn to eliminate them by various means. For example, we know that not all of them are watching us in the windows and shooting holes. Most of them are resting in the shelter. In order to get them from the shelter to the windows and shooting holes, we should organize small teams, often shouting "Wula" at night near the German defense area, and exploding several grenades from time to time, as if we had launched an attack. At this time, the enemy will panic to the window or blockhouse shooting hole, ready to fight back. As long as they open fire and reveal their position, our concealed snipers can open fire decisively and clean up the enemy's fire points, causing them great losses. "

When I was speaking above, the commanders sitting below took out their notebooks and pens and carefully recorded what I said in the notebooks. They were ready to digest after the meeting.

When I finished my knowledge of urban warfare, I raised my hand and looked at my watch, and found that it was already eleven o'clock. So I said to the commanders here, "comrades, this is the end of tonight's meeting. Let's all go back to our respective units. " Seeing that all of you stand up from your seats and want to leave, I emphasize: "I hope you will not only keep in mind what you have learned today, but also keep it in mind. At the same time, we will try to put it into practice, so that we can maintain our advantage in the next battle."

When the headquarters was quiet again, I was discussing with Bantai leiev how to better use snipers in the night harassment operation. Major basmanov, who had just gone out, trotted in all the way and reported to me in a panic: "Comrade division commander, there is an army just coming from the east bank. According to the commander, they are ordered to join our division."

As soon as I was halfway through, I was interrupted by basmanov, so I waved impatiently and said to him, "Comrade major, the number of the second regiment has been greatly reduced at present. You should supplement the new troops to lieutenant commander Oleg. Don't bother me with such trifles in the future."

I didn't expect basmanov still stood in the same place and murmured, "Comrade division commander, this unit is a special guard company sent by your superior. It can't be added to other regiments."

"Special guard company?" Some time ago, Khrushchev once sent a message through basmanov that he wanted to equip me with a capable guard company. I didn't take it seriously. I didn't expect to come here now. I quickly told busmanov: "major, you immediately go to the company commander of the guard company to come in!"

Basmanov agreed, then turned and went out. After a while, he came in with a commander with a helmet, came quickly to me and reported, "Comrade division commander, the company commander of the guard company is coming."

I looked up at the commander of the special guard company. I didn't wait for me to see what the man looked like. He had already bypassed busmanov and came to me. He stood at attention and said in a trembling tone: "report to general, Captain Yushchenko of the interior department reports to you. I have been ordered to lead a company of the interior department to report to you and ask for your instructions."

"Yushchenko?" The name sounds familiar. I've heard it somewhere before. I stepped forward to the captain and looked at him carefully. Under the light of the steam lamp, the man looked very kind, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him. Seeing that I didn't speak, I just looked at myself. The captain lost his temper, quickly took off his helmet and said in a loud voice, "Comrade division, don't you really know me? I'm Yushchenko, Captain Yushchenko. It's the company commander of the guard when you were the commander of the eighth division When Yushchenko said this, my memory suddenly recovered. It turned out that it was him, my former guard company commander. When I was arrested by the interior department, he tried to take someone to protect me. I didn't expect that the superior would send him to mamayev post to continue to be my guard company commander at this time.